White Pills
by BlueNeutrino
Summary: The owner of a 33rd century sugarleaf plantation takes pills. She doesn't remember what they're for, just knows that she needs to take them - three times a day without fail. But when she encounters the Doctor he thinks she needs a change of prescription.
1. Edmus

**_White Pills_**

**Summary: The owner of a 33rd century sugarleaf plantation takes pills. She doesn't remember what they're for, just knows that she needs to take them - three times a day without fail. But when she encounters the Doctor he thinks she needs a change of prescription.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, and also, as with so much of what I write, several of Sandy Pearlman's inventions may pop up here and there.**

**A/N: This is a rewrite of something I literally wrote years ago, hopefully improved a lot since then but I'm still not sure if it's any good. I am worried that the main OC in this is a bit of a Mary-Sue, or at least she's coming across that way in the first couple of chapters, so I'd appreciate honest feedback to help me avoid that.**

**The winter market in this is modelled on the kinds of Christmas markets you get in continental Europe – the stalls are mostly small wooden huts and tend to be arranged in rows. I've been to a few Christmas markets in Belgium, Holland and Germany and most of them followed this kind of set up.**

**Set between _Journey's End_ and _The Next Doctor_  
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**_Chapter One – Edmus_**

The woman opened the money pouch she was holding and picked out three bronze chips. "I'll have a daimnut cake with cream, please," she said as she smiled over the counter in front of her. The green skinned girl serving went to pick out the cake, and while she was gone the woman pulled her woollen coat tighter around her and rubbed her hands together. It was an even colder winter than normal for the Northern Hemisphere of Acaritos, and the snow was falling heavily around them. Despite the weather, the Edmus Fest market was packed with people enjoying the festive season, and the woman had discovered she had a particular taste for the local sugar-based cuisine. For the two days she'd been at the Festival she'd seemed to live solely on daimnut cakes, sucresticks and caragel bars. Fortunately, her teeth had put up well with the onslaught of sucrose so far, but she was less certain about how the rest of her was faring with the planet's icy temperature. Shuffling closer to the counter and the heat of the ovens, she tucked her long black hair back behind her right ear and fiddled with the Acaritan cents she was holding while she waited for her order to arrive.

"Oh no, was that the last daimnut cake?" she heard a voice say off to her right, "I really wanted to try one of those. They're legendary in this part of the galaxy."

She looked across to see a man looking in disappointment at the heated tray on the counter as the last daimnut cake was removed from it and a big blob of cream was squirted on top. She let her gaze linger on him for a couple of seconds as she took in his appearance: he was tall and slim, with tousled brown hair and warm brown eyes. Normally, she would have just thought _tough luck _and been quite happy to take the last cake for herself, but on this occasion she found she wasn't particularly inclined to do that. Maybe it was because she found him quite pleasant to look at, or maybe it was because of just how disappointed he seemed, but there was something about him that prompted a rare display of generosity from her. As her daimnut cake was set down on a polystyrene tray in front of her she pushed it across to her right and gave him a smile. "You have it, I've already had three today," she said as she set down the cash on the counter and turned to the serving girl, "I'll have three sucresticks instead, please."

The man pushed the cake back across to her, "Oh no, really, you don't have to do that. I can wait for them to bake the next batch. You got here first."

She pushed it back, "No, seriously, someone needs to stop me eating them before my teeth all fall out."

He gave a slight chuckle at that. "And of course eating sucresticks instead is a sure way to avert that crisis."

She smiled back at him. "Look, just have the cake. If you've not tried them then you really have to do so." The serving girl handed her the sucresticks in a paper bag. She picked them up and took a bite out of one of the brown caramelised rods. "Think of it as me doing my bit to promote the local cuisine."

He gave her a warm smile, and she couldn't help but find something very pleasant about the way his face lit up when he did that_. _"Thanks. So is this really the best cake in the universe? That's what I've heard," he said as he picked up the cake and they both stepped away from the counter.

"Oh yeah, they most definitely are," she replied with a grin.

He looked slightly dubious. "I don't know, that Victoria Sponge Mrs Beeton made me is going to be hard to beat."

She frowned at him slightly. Mrs Beeton... that seemed to ring bells in her memory, but what she thought it meant didn't make sense. "There was a rather famous cake maker from Earth called Mrs Beeton, wasn't there?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, seemingly impressed. "There was actually, not many people know about her now but she was quite famous during her day."

The woman took another bite out of her sucrestick and chewed on it thoughtfully. "I must have read something about her at some point. Wasn't she old earth? _Really _old Earth, like nineteenth century or something?"

He gave her a smile, seeming quite pleased that she knew something like that. "Yep, she was probably the best cookery expert of the Victorian era."

She returned the grin, although she was still trying to work out where she knew that from. Maybe she had read something about it, but she couldn't remember where. Still, it didn't really matter as that Mrs Beeton couldn't possibly be the one he was referring to. After swallowing her mouthful of caramel she spoke to him again. "I would ask if your Mrs Beeton was any relation, but it was so long ago I don't think there's any way to know. I guess it's just coincidence."

"Coincidence? Well..." he said, looking as if he might dispute that for a moment, but then carried on with, "Yes, of course it is. Still made a great cake though."

She took another bite of the sucrestick and gave a shrug. "Victoria Sponge is alright, but a bit plain. I think you'll like that one better."

"Well, we're about to find out," he replied, flashing her another grin.

She smiled back, but at that point she just happened to notice someone exit the hut housing the cake stand behind him and disappear into the crowd. She froze. There was no reason in particular that should have caught her attention, except for the fact she thought she recognised the person in question. It had only been the briefest of glimpses, but she was certain it had been the same man from earlier. What had he been doing at the cake stand? She looked down at the half eaten sucrestick in her hand and put it back into its paper bag. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a good idea to finish it off now.

Turning her attention back to the man she was standing beside and realising he was about to put the daimnut cake in his mouth, she quickly put a hand out to stop him and pushed it back down. "Actually, no, probably best you don't eat that one," she said. "It was the last on the tray, probably stale. You won't get a very good first impression if you try that. Go buy yourself something from the next batch." She rummaged round in one of her pockets and took out a couple of Acaritan cents from the money pouch which she pushed into his hand, not giving him chance to protest. He was looking at her with a slightly puzzled expression and seemed to be about to ask a question, but she didn't plan on hanging round to answer it.

"I think I'll be alright as long as it's still got daimnuts in it. What makes..." he began, but she continued talking over him.

"I, er…I think these sucresticks might have been off as well. I'm not feeling too good. Sorry, you'll have to excuse me," she said, and before he had chance to say anything more she'd turned and disappeared into the crowd.


	2. Thieves

_**Chapter Two – Thieves**_

_Thirty minutes earlier…_

It was time to make her move. Two days she'd been here watching them, just to be certain, and now she was more convinced than ever that these were the men she was looking for. One of them had just disappeared out of the back of the wooden hut that housed the stocks while the other one was manning sales up front, giving her the perfect chance to slip inside now and see for herself. She quickly slipped into the gap between the rows of huts and round the back of the stall, pushing open the wooden door quietly to let herself in.

Inside there was only a small amount of storage space for stock, but the shelves against each wall were piled high with packets labelled 'The Costello Brothers' Finest Sugarleaf'. Moving quickly, she picked up one of the cartons from the shelves and opened it to see the loose, dark brown dried leaf packed inside. She took a small pinch of it between her thumb and forefinger which she then placed on her tongue. The leaf dissolved almost instantly, leaving behind the familiar taste she recognised: sweet, almost sickly, with just a faint hint of tobacco. These were definitely the men she was looking for.

She put the carton back down and looked round at the other packets stacked on the shelves, trying to estimate just how much sugarleaf they had in here. She was just beginning to count them when she heard the door to the hut open again and she spun round quickly to see a man walk in.

"Joe, do you think we should…" he was saying, but broke off as he saw her. They both stared at each in surprise for a couple of moments, but then he moved to stand in front of the door to block her exit and shouted out again. "Joe, I need you back here."

"I'm selling right now, Al," came the reply from the front of the stall.

"No, Joe, I _really _need you back here," the man repeated.

The woman didn't say anything, but there was the sound of someone huffing as a man walked round the section of wall that separated the front of the stall from the storage space. "Al, this had better be…" he began, but then he too stopped when he saw her. "So what do we have here?" he said aggressively.

"It seems we have a thief, Joe," the first man said in response.

The woman just eyed them both rather coolly. "Actually, you'd be wrong there," she said, her voice completely calm, "This isn't Costello's Sugarleaf, you see; it's Nova Pleiadean Sugarleaf. And I happen to be Dominie Nova, which I think makes _you _the thieves."

The two men exchanged glances with each other and then glared at her. "This is ridiculous," the one called Joe said. "Have you just come here to accuse us of stealing? I heard your leaf yield wasn't too good this season but blaming it on us is just preposterous."

She shrugged casually. "Actually, my yield's been fine, thank you very much, although a few of my export shipments have gone missing recently. And all this leaf has my genostamp on it. Check if you don't believe me."

They exchanged glances with each other again, looking more worried now but saying nothing.

She gave them a mocking look. "You really think I didn't GM protect my own crops?"

"Well," the one named Al snarled, "Maybe so, but would you be willing to testify that this leaf is all yours in court?" He was reaching into this inside of his jacket, going for a handheld laser gun, maybe?

The intimidation tactic wasn't going to work. She quickly reached into her own pocket and pulled out a wallet containing an ID which she held up for him to see. She watched his face fall as he read 'Dominie C. Nova, First Lieutenant, Intergalactic Federal Authority.' His hand dropped to his side as he looked at his brother with a defeated expression.

She smirked at them both. "You still want to take this to court?"

They were both glaring at her, but in a manner that was more resentful now than threatening. "Well, you're not going to give us a choice, are you?" Joe said disdainfully.

She shrugged again. "Actually, I don't have much patience with the court system. I see no reason why we can't just settle this now. If you're prepared to reimburse me for all the leaf you've stolen in the past two months, plus, say, ten per cent, I'd be happy not to press charges."

"You want cash up front?" Al growled.

She met his gaze with a challenging expression. "Yes, that's exactly what I want," she said, holding out her hand expectantly. "When you're ready, gentlemen."

They glowered at her silently for a couple more seconds, and then Al turned to instruct his brother. "Joe, get Lieutenant Nova the cash."

Joe looked astounded that Al had given in so easily. "No! There's something odd here about her not wanting to take it to court. I think…"

"Joe," Al said forcibly. "The cash. All of it. Plus ten percent."

Joe just stared at him angrily, before giving a huff and shooting one final glare at Dominie as he went to collect the cash from the safe kept in the corner of the stockroom. He took the money out and handed her a wad of galactic paper credits, which she counted before giving a satisfied nod and tucking them into the inside pocket of her coat.

"I'm glad we got that sorted out, gentlemen," she said, giving them both a curt nod as she turned towards the exit. "I hope we don't ever meet in this way again."

As she opened the door to leave she suddenly heard the sound of movement behind her and whipped round again, her hand going to her own laser pistol which she had tucked into her waistband. As she spun round she saw Al holding Joe off, who seemed to have picked up one of the larger packs of sugarleaf and was about to try and hit her with it. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of the smaller brother trying to restrain the taller, more thick set one.

"Joe," Al was saying. "Don't. It's not worth picking a fight with a fed."

She smirked again. "Wise choice," she said to Al, and then turned and strode off back into the throng of people crowding the market.

_Back to the present…_

Where were the toilets? That was what she needed. The block of chemical restrooms that always attracted mile long queues no matter how many of them there were, and that space behind them where those who'd had too much Acaritan Ale went to throw up. She quickly zoned in on the restrooms and hurried towards them, staggering the last few paces until she'd reached that empty zone behind them that stank of piss and vomit – not the most pleasant area of the Festival – where she leant against the back of one of the portacabins and bent over double, as if she was about to throw up. Although she made a retching noise nothing actually came out, and even in the dim light she still saw the shadow of the man approaching behind her a couple of seconds before choosing to react to it.

She waited until he was practically on top of her before spinning round suddenly and slamming a fist into his solar plexus. Caught by surprise, he made a slight "mmph" sound and doubled over slightly, but he wasn't incapacitated by it. He recovered quickly and tried to land a blow to the side of her head, but she managed to dodge it and quickly landed a kick to his ankles which sent him hurtling to the floor. She wasn't surprised she was faster than him – it was Joe, the burly one, who'd gone after her, but she suspected that despite what he'd said about not picking fights with feds Al had been in on it too.

As Joe fell she grabbed hold of his wrist and twisted so that his arm became trapped behind his back. He crumpled to the ground and she knelt down so that her knee was pressing into the small of his back, pinning him to the floor. She then took out her laser pistol and pressed its muzzle to the back of his skull. "What exactly was your plan, Joe?" she said mockingly, "Poison me so that I'd pass out here and you could steal the cash back off me? Well, it didn't exactly work, did it?"

Joe just grunted in response, and she twisted his arm even further to force it higher up his back, causing him to wince in pain.

"Your brother's a sly one, isn't he?" she continued. "Making me think he was going to let it go, and then sending you after me. I expect this was all his idea. You don't seem to have the brains to come up with it yourself."

Joe gave a snarl in retaliation. "_Bitch._"

All she did in response to that was give his arm another shove, provoking another grunt of pain.

"Is this the part where you tell me to get a good lawyer?" he growled, his voice full of anger and disdain. "I expect you'll definitely be taking us to court now, won't you?"

"I suppose I could do, yeah" she replied nonchalantly, "But actually, it's easier to just do this."

She pulled the trigger on the pistol.

There was barely any noise, just a slightly muffled zapping sound as the pulse of gamma rays blasted a small hole in the back of Joe's head. Dominie felt the tension in his muscles go slack and she straightened up to leave him lying on the floor, brushing herself down and tucking the gun back inside her waistband. She shook her head as she stepped over his body to head back into the market. "You know what I hate even more than thieves?" she said to herself as she began to walk away. "Idiotic ones."

A smug smile was beginning to play on her lips and she started to reach a hand into her pocket, but stopped immediately as she heard a voice she recognised speak out behind her. "Wait!"


	3. Confrontation

**A/N: No actual new content this chapter for anyone who's got a story alert, but just a reworking of chapters one and two that I've broken down and tried rewriting several times. Despite all that I'm still not happy with them. I'm just really struggling to write the Doctor in character, even though I can't exactly pinpoint what it is I'm doing wrong. I find I'm having to force myself to imagine David Tennant saying the words I've written rather than the image of him naturally arising from reading them, and I'm just not satisfied with it. But I've just decided to plough on and hope I get more into the swing of things as the story progresses.**

**Reviews with suggestions would be appreciated, because these first few chapters are proving really difficult to write. I'm hoping it'll get easier as I go on.  
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**_Chapter Three – Confrontation_**

Spinning round, Dominie quickly took her hand out of her pocket and shot a ferocious glare at the man standing behind her. It was the man she'd just bought a cake for minutes ago. He must have followed her, and she gritted her teeth angrily. Why did he have to go and do that? She'd had everything under control but now he was going to turn everything into a complete mess just by being here. "Did you follow me?" she snapped.

"Did you just kill that man?" he countered, not seeming particularly scared but most definitely angry.

She scowled as she realised that his accusation carried a lot more weight than hers, but really it was none of his business. "If I did, do you really think it's a good idea to be confronting me about it?"

His expression was a mixture of anger and astonishment. "Yes, I think if you committed murder you should be confronted about it, although I'm surprised you actually did it. That's the last thing I was expecting to happen when I followed you. Well, maybe not the _last _thing but it's pretty close. You bought me cake and then killed someone. Aside from being completely immoral and illegal that's odd, to say the least." He was glaring at her angrily. "Why did you do it?"

She just continued to glare right back, avoiding the question. "Why did you follow me?"

"Because you said you didn't feel well and I wanted to make sure you were alright," he replied, giving her a straight answer as if he thought it would help make sense of what had just happened. "After all, you _had _just bought me cake. But then you went and killed someone, and that's..." He left the end of that sentence hanging and just gave her a hard look, his contempt for her actions evident. "What am I supposed to make of that? I mean, I've heard of the Friendly Assassins of Chidoo who'll buy you a present before killing you, but you just did something nice for one man and then murdered another in cold blood. Why?"

She rolled her eyes, wishing he'd just shut up and go away. Even though she'd thought she quite liked him earlier, this was really nothing to do with him. "Well, you were nice whereas he tried to kill me," she said bluntly. "I think that makes things pretty straightforward. Now, if you don't mind, I think it would be best for you to forget that this ever happened and just go and enjoy the rest of the festival. "

She was about to turn and walk away again, hoping he wouldn't follow her, but he carried on talking. "No, I can't do that."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, what else do you plan on doing? I don't see that you have many options."

"I just witnessed you murder someone," he said, still sounding angry and not the least bit frightened. "Maybe he did try to kill you, but you still can't be allowed to just walk away from something like that. If I went to the festival security police they might have something to say about it."

She cocked her head to give him an 'Oh really?' sort of look. "Feel free," she said, taking out the ID card she'd used earlier. "They won't be able to do anything. That kill was authorised by the IFA."

He eyed the ID card sceptically. "Let me get a better look at that."

She gave an indignant scoff as she handed it over to him. "You think it's fake? 'Cause you're gonna be disappointed."

He held out the ID card in front of him to examine it, and then reached into the pockets of his coat to take out a strange device that Dominie thought looked like some kind of high-tech pen. He pressed a button on it and the end of it flashed blue as he used it to scan the ID. Dominie scowled, not liking the fact she didn't know what he was doing but still feeling confident she had nothing to worry about.

He finished the scan and placed the device back in his pocket, before handing her back her ID. "Satisfied?" she said mockingly as she took it back off him and put it away.

"Well," he replied, "You were right, it's definitely not a fake. Although the chip on it does say that the holder of that card was terminated seven years ago, so I don't think it's as legitimate as you'd have me believe."

She suddenly went very still, unable to respond for a couple of seconds. _How the hell…?_ "How could you tell something like that without a chip scanner?"

He shrugged. "Well, I have a sonic screwdriver instead, and that sort of does the same thing."

She glared at him. He definitely knew enough to be trouble for her now, but perhaps not so much that she was unable to divert the threat. "Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm quite clearly still here and not terminated, so there must be an error there somewhere. So now I'm going to get back to enjoying the festival and you're going to keep your nose out of federal business."

"Alright," he said casually, "And since this quite clearly has nothing to do with federal business I'm going to carry on trying to find out _what _exactly it is. So, do you mind telling me who he was and why you killed him?"

Her glare was still fixed firmly in place. "You just witnessed me murder a man," she said threateningly, "Has it not occurred to you that if you don't leave me alone I might do the same to you?"

His response was perfectly calm. "It's occurred to me, yes, but I know you aren't going to do that."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And what makes you so sure?" she said, taking out the laser pistol again and pointing it at him.

He glanced briefly at the gun, but didn't seem at all bothered by it before looking past it to make eye contact with her again. She suddenly felt rather uncomfortable when he looked at her like that. It was as if he knew something about her that even she herself didn't know. "Because you bought me cake," he replied calmly. "You did something nice for me, and I really don't think you're the kind of person who could shoot me without finding a good justification for it."

She didn't respond, but kept the gun pointing at him while he continued to look at her like that for a couple more seconds. Eventually though, she realised he was right and lowered the weapon again. He did seem like a nice guy and she didn't want to kill him. "Alright," she sighed, "But I'm still not going to let you cause trouble for me."

"There doesn't have to be trouble," he said, and his tone sounded much less confrontational now that she'd lowered the gun. "If you tell me who that man was and what your justification was for killing him then maybe I can help you."

Even though he now appeared to be trying to reason with her, that was still none of his business and she didn't want to tell him. "Look," she said, sounding more than a little exasperated, "Let's just assume there's a good reason the chip on my card says 'terminated', and there's a good reason that I killed that man but I'm not allowed to tell you. Can't we just leave it at that?"

He didn't look satisfied with that response. "Those are quite large assumptions."

"But they _do_ make sense," she rebutted, "Taking into account the Intergalactic Secrets Act and all, so can't you just let it drop?"

He shook his head. "No," he said seriously. "I just watched you kill someone, and even if there is a good reason for it I can't just 'let it drop'."

She was getting more and more frustrated with him."If it bothers you so much why didn't you do something to stop me?"

"I wish I had done. Should've followed you more closely, then maybe I would have got here more than just a few seconds before you shot him." A hint of contempt had crept back into his voice, but he was still managing to remain completely calm.

She just smirked at him. "Oh yeah? Easy to say when you can't travel back in time and change what happened. What exactly do you imagine you would have done when you aren't even armed?"

"Oh believe me, I would have thought of something," he said in a tone that was full of confidence, "I still might, if you really want to find out what I'm capable of."

_What the hell is that supposed to mean? _There was something about the way he was talking that bothered her. He was far too self assured for her liking; she preferred people who she knew she could exercise control over, which generally speaking was most of the population. However, this man, whoever he was, was certainly nothing like most people. "Who exactly are you, anyway?" she suddenly snapped.

"I'm the Doctor," he replied, not really seeming angry now, but more as though he was just keen to get some answers. "And I would ask who you are, but according to your ID you're First Lieutenant Dominie C. Nova of the Intergalactic Federal Authority, although I'm not sure if I should believe that"

"Yes, you should," she replied indignantly.

"And should I also believe that you died seven years ago?"

She looked at him rather sourly. "Evidently not."

"Alright. So, Lieutenant…" he began, managing to keep up the reasonable tone, but broke off as a loud bang suddenly sounded in the sky above them. They both looked up to see the upper layers of the atmosphere illumated with flashes of light, sparks and patterns. "Ah, fireworks!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed, turning round to get a better look. A joyful grin spread across his face at the sight of them and he seemed to forget all about what it was they'd just been discussing. "This is the bit I was looking forward to! Apparently, they're so good you can see them from two of the moons. How brilliant is that?"

"Three of the moons," she corrected, going along with his temporary distraction. "I booked a ride to one of them to watch the fireworks last year."

He looked back at her and his expression darkened somewhat again. "Fantastic as that is, we probably shouldn't get into a lengthy discussion about it while we're stood next to the corpse of the man you just shot. So back to the point, why _did _you shoot him?"

She gave a slight huff and dodged the question. "Why should I have to answer that when you're the one who started spouting off about fireworks? If you're going to go off topic I'd rather talk about moon rides instead of this."

He kept up the stern look for a couple more seconds, but then seemed unable to prevent the grin from returning to his face. Although he was trying to remain serious, it appeared his enthusiasm for the fireworks was overruling him. "Oh alright, but I promise you just a few seconds on this and then I'm going to get back to that. Which moon?"

She pointed to a spot in the sky behind him and he turned to look. "That one."

His grin broadened even further as he saw the purple crescent shape hanging just above the horizon below the fireworks. "Is that one Sero or..."

He didn't get chance to finish the sentence. Dominie had stepped up behind him and raised the butt of the laser pistol to hit him hard round the side of the head, causing him to fall to the floor unconscious. She knelt down next to him just to make sure he was alright; she genuinely didn't want to kill him.

He was breathing normally, and although she could see a small bruise was already beginning to form on his right temple she didn't think she'd done much damage. "Sorry, Doctor," she said with a sigh as she straightened up again, "But I told you I can't let you cause trouble for me."

Turning away from him she put the pistol away and reached into her pocket again, this time taking out a small glass bottle with a medical screw cap. She opened it and dispensed some of its contents into the palm of her hand: two small white pills, which she dry swallowed before replacing the lid on the bottle and putting it back into her pocket.

What had just happened? Well, it didn't matter. In a couple of hours she'd have disappeared into the Edmus Fest crowds again and the Doctor wouldn't have a chance of finding her. It didn't make any difference anyway.

She quickly pushed the incident to the back of her mind and went to find a better spot from which to watch the fireworks.


	4. Second Encounter

**Thank you Anonymous Person for the review! Anyway, here goes chapter four.**

**Edit 9/7/11: I've rewritten this again but I'm still not happy with it. As much as I want to write this story I'm finding it really difficult.  
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_**Chapter Four – Second Encounter**_

The Doctor gave a groan as he rolled over and blinked his eyes open, realising he was lying on the floor. The side of his head was throbbing painfully and he screwed his eyes shut again, putting a hand up to his temple. So she'd knocked him out. Sneaky. It seemed she was good at misleading him; he'd have to remember that in future.

As he opened his eyes again he registered that the sky was a blank expanse of navy blue clouded with dark grey smoke that shielded the stars, and with a stab of disappointment he realised that he must have missed the fireworks. He also realised that there was something cold and wet soaking into his clothes, and as he picked himself up he saw he'd been lying in the snow. He brushed some of the tiny flakes of ice off his coat and shivered. It was a good job that his Time Lord physiology meant he could withstand the cold: any human might well have frozen to death by now. Had she known that when she left him there, he wondered? She'd certainly shown she was capable of killing, although she had seemed fairly reluctant to do it to him. If she'd genuinely intended to finish him off she probably would have just shot him, but even so he knew she was up to something untrustworthy. He was going to have to find out what, even though he wasn't too sure where to start.

He began to walk back into the market place, the throbbing pain in his head dying down a little. Perhaps the best place to go might be back towards the cake stand, since that was where he'd first met her, but even as he approached it he realised something was wrong. A few yards down from the cake stall a congregation of people had gathered in the aisle between the stands, blocking his view of what was going on. He couldn't see what they were looking at, but he could hear the hum of a hover vehicle's engine and saw the periodic blue flashing of a police light. Pushing his way forward into the crowd and flashing his psychic paper at a few people he managed to reach the barrier of police tape that closed off the crime scene.

Looking out in front of him he saw the body of a man lying in the snow with his limbs splayed out at odd angles and green foam oozing from his mouth. A forensic team was taking photographs and police were milling around, interviewing the witnesses nearby. The Doctor felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realised he recognised the man. Now he knew what had happened.

He was just considering going and talking to one of the police officers when he heard a voice hiss from behind him.

"You chuffing idiot. What did you go and give him the cake for?"

He turned to see Dominie Nova standing just a few inches off to his left, speaking quietly as if she didn't want to be heard, but still sounding frustrated.

"I didn't _give _it him," he whispered back, "Well, I suppose I did sort of give it him, but I didn't say he could eat it. I just asked him to hold it for me for a few minutes."

She gave him a disbelieving look. "What the bloody hell for?"

"Well, I thought you might start throwing up or something. I didn't exactly want to be standing round holding a cake throughout that, although quite clearly I was worrying about completely the wrong thing."

"I told you not to eat if for a reason," she said, sounding quite smug.

He gave her an angry look. "I see that now, although you haven't exactly been straight with me. The fact that somebody might attempt to poison you was something you failed to mention."

"Why would I have mentioned it?" she snapped, sounding rather irritated.

"Most people would go to the police if they knew somebody was going to try and kill them," he replied, "You however just tried to kill them right back, which probably wasn't the best way of dealing with it. Although I've got to say I'm intrigued as to why he wanted to kill you in the first place."

She looked more irritated than ever. "What's that got to do with you?"

"Well, I suppose it doesn't really," he said in response, "But since two people are dead, and you quite obviously aren't as much of the friendly cake-buying type as you made out to be, you can't really blame me for being interested."

She rolled her eyes. "Be interested all you like, I'm not telling you anything."

"Alright," he replied, "But if you don't tell me anything I might just go and tell those police officers over there something. And I'm quite happy to talk about what it is I've just seen you do."

He could almost hear the smirk in her voice when she said the next sentence. "Feel free, if you want to get yourself arrested as well. You're the one who gave that guy the poisoned cake."

He glared at her. "The difference is I didn't kill him on purpose."

"Did you really think you could give some random guy a cake to hold and expect him to not have eaten it by the time you got back?" she said with a sneer.

"Well, he looked trustworthy," he retaliated, "Although I suppose in hindsight you looked pretty trustworthy too when I first met you. Seems I was wrong about that."

She responded with an indignant look. "I stopped you eating that cake so that _you _wouldn't be the one who got poisoned, but yet you're saying I'm untrustworthy?"

He was beginning to formulate a response to that when he glanced behind her to see what was going on. He stopped talking as he saw that a police officer was talking to the green skinned serving girl from the stand, both of them gesturing towards Dominie and the Doctor and casting glances in their direction.

"Doctor, it's not like I've done anything to…" Dominie was continuing.

He held up a hand to silence her. "We can discuss your trustworthiness later, but right now I think we may both be in trouble."

Realising he was staring at a point somewhere over her shoulder, she stopped talking and turned to see where he was looking. The girl and the cop were both staring directly at them, and then the cop began to walk forward while taking out his handcuffs. Dominie glanced back at the Doctor, who looked from her to the policeman and back again. In a split second a moment of understanding passed between them, and they both turned and started to run.

They barged their way through the crowd of people and heard a few shouts from the policemen behind them as they turned left into one of the gaps between stalls and began running down another row of stands. A police siren began to sound as a couple of cops jumped on their hoverbikes, while several others started chasing them on foot, brandishing their stun phasers.

"What exactly did we do?" Dominie shouted as they dodged a couple of stun phaser blasts.

"We bought the cake that killed him," the Doctor shouted back in answer, "Guess that makes us prime suspects."

There was the buzzing sound of an engine across to their right and they both looked round to see a hover bike swerve between stalls and try and cut in front of them to block their escape. Dominie slowed down, but the Doctor simply pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the bike, causing the vehicle to spiral off in a completely different direction much to the pilot's surprise.

Dominie gave him a slightly surprised look but didn't say anything, just continued running.

Several shoppers and stall owners were looking at them in shock as they ran past, and glancing behind them they could see the cops pursuing them on foot. Dominie suddenly heard the Doctor shout "This way!" and he turned to run towards a stall that was selling chemistry equipment. "Excuse me!" he shouted to the store owner, "Do you have some potassium I could borrow?"

The store owner glanced at him and then up at the police that were pursuing them. "Er, I…"

"Actually, no," said the Doctor. "Don't want to overdo it. Have you got any sodium?"

The store owner just continued to stare at him nervously. "Yes, but…"

"Those are sodium chips right there," the Doctor said, pointing to a tray on a shelf behind the owner. "For the demagnetography sets. Do you mind just passing me that?"

The cops were getting closer and the man was looking uncertain. "What…"

He began, but Dominie suddenly yelled at him, pulling out her gun. "Just give him the goddamn tray!"

He looked at her in fear while the Doctor turned to her and glared, but her outburst had the desired effect and the man quickly thrust the tray at the Doctor. The cops had almost caught up with them now and were yelling for people to get out of the way, but the Doctor quickly threw the contents of the tray on the floor just in front of them. As the sodium reacted with the snow bursts of yellow flame suddenly shot up from the floor and the police suddenly backed off as the chemical fizzed and smoked in front of them.

A few people screamed, but there were a couple of teenage onlookers who cheered at the entertainment. Dominie grinned at them, but the Doctor just continued to glare at her as they set off again. "I don't think you pulling out that gun really helped anything."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm not the one who just threw a load of the world's most reactive element at a bunch of cops."

"_Second _most reactive element."

"Oh, who the hell cares? That was smart, though. I wouldn't have thought of it."

He couldn't help but smile at the compliment. "Well, I suppose it was quite clever, wasn't it?"

The sodium reaction only bought them a few seconds, the police quickly diverting their course around it even as it died down, but it had given the Doctor and Dominie chance to gain a reasonable head start. Even so, they still weren't quite out of range of the phasers. There were several zapping sounds as more phaser blasts headed in their direction, and they rounded a corner to find themselves running through the space round the backs of the stalls. No one else was around, and they quickly ran to the back door of one of the huts to go inside. "In here!" the Doctor said, as they both rushed inside the hut, the door swinging shut just as the cops rounded the corner behind them. They both stood in the cramped, dimly lit room in complete silence for a few moments, listening to the police run past. When it had gone quiet again they both let out the breaths they'd been holding, and began to pant slightly as they recovered from the run.

After a few moments the Doctor suddenly grinned cheerily. "Well, that was fun."

Dominie looked at him in bewilderment. "_Fun'_s not the word I'd use."

"Informative, too."

"_Informative'_s a word I'd use even less."

"Well, that told me a lot about you," he offered as an explanation.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like that you obviously aren't really a federal officer, for one thing."

"And you deduced that how?"

"If you were, you wouldn't have run," he explained. "You would have just shown them your card, they would have accepted your authority and let you go, no trouble. However, you know as well as I do that card isn't actually valid. You can't risk showing it to anyone with actual authority because if they thought to check up on it they'd realise you've been officially dead for seven years. I'm sure _that _would cause a few problems for you."

She glared at him, impressed that he'd been able to work it out but wishing more and more that she'd never met him. "Why did _you_ run, then? If you knew all that you could have just explained everything to the police and they would have come after me instead."

"Well," he said with a shrug, "I just like running."

She scowled at him. "Now that's just stupid."

He looked a little offended by that, but then seemed to brush it off. "Where are you from, anyway? Acaritos?"

She shook her head. "No, I got the startram here for the festival. I live on Alcyone Three Beta."

"Really? The plantation planet?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Whereabouts on that one?"

She gave him another glare. "Why are you asking?"

He gave a casual shrug, as if it was of little importance. "Well, I was just wondering if you wanted a lift home, that's all."

"If you're offering," she said cautiously, thinking it was a bit suspicious for him to offer to do something like that after their run-in ealier.

He grinned at her, "Of course," but then his expression became serious again. "On one condition."

She looked at him, thinking she didn't much like the sound of that. "What?"

"I take you home, and you tell me who you really are, what just happened and why you killed that man."

She continued to glare at him in silence for a few moments, deliberating. It probably was a fair deal, but she really didn't want to tell him the whole truth. It would only make things worse. Still, she supposed she could always make the deal then break it. "Fine," she agreed, "It's an island next to the Nova sugarleaf plantation, on the Tropic of Sycaro sixty kliks west of the date line."

He gave another one of those impossibly bright grins. "Sounds good to me. Alright, let's go!"

He pushed the door open and they both rushed outside. Turning left, they began to start running again, but stopped suddenly as they realised that the group of police was several yards in front of them. They watched as one of the police officers in the rear of the unit turned round, and spotting them gave a yell so that the entire group turned and began to chase them again.

"Actually, it's this way anyway," the Doctor said, as they about turned and began to run in the opposite direction.

As they approached the end of the row of stalls a few stun laser blasts shot overhead and they were forced to duck. They rounded a corner and the Doctor pointed out in front of him. "There she is!"

Dominie looked at the blue box in front of her and stopped running to look at him in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? It says 'Police Box' on the top!"

"Nope, not kidding," he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her forward just as more laser blasts shot past them. "Now come on!"

They reached the door of the box and he pushed it open to pull her inside after him, before closing it firmly behind them. Dominie looked around her, more than a little bewildered. "Well, that's…"

"I know," said the Doctor, walking up towards the console. "It's…"

"Not as modern as I was expecting," Dominie finished.

He stopped walking and turned back to look at her, looking both incredulous and slightly offended. "I just show you a blue box that's a hundred times bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and all you can say is 'it's not as modern as I was expecting'?"

She stared right back at him with a hard look, "Well, it being bigger on the inside's not all that special, is it? I'm pretty sure this isn't the only ship in the universe with Casimir warp cells; it's not that weird."

He just looked at her in silence for a few moments, completely taken aback, and then went back to fiddling with the controls on the console, looking thoughtful. "No, it's not all that weird," he said after a few seconds, "That is, if you're from the two hundred and twelfth century and are familiar with Casimir warping."

She looked at him in confusion. "What? No, of course I'm not from…Well, I just knew it was theoretically possible, that's all." She realised she didn't actually know how she knew about it. Damn. She'd already revealed too much. Perhaps it would be best if she tried not talking to him at all in future unless it was strictly necessary.

The Doctor pulled down a lever on the console and the entire room juddered and the engines seemed to make a whining noise in protest. The Doctor looked at Dominie in disapproval, "See, I think you've offended her with that comment. She doesn't want to go now."

Dominie wasn't really paying attention, still confused about why she'd just said what she said. Had she remembered something she shouldn't? She slipped a hand into her pocket to close round the pill bottle again, wondering if she ought to take another one, but then she realised the Doctor was watching her.

"Anyway, I think you can explain all that to me later," he said as there was the sound of more phaser blasts hitting the door. "Right now we should probably get moving," he flicked another switch on the console and pulled on one of the levers. "Come on, old girl, I'm sure she didn't mean it," he said, talking to the ship, and there was a whooshing noise as something in the central column started moving. The Doctor grinned. "Now that's more like it. Allons-y!"


	5. In The House On The Island

_**Chapter Five – In The House On The Island**_

It was a lot smoother than Dominie had been expecting. She'd thought she would at least feel it when they took off, but it was as if they weren't even moving at all. She looked around, slightly puzzled, and then wondered how a blue police box was supposed to be able to exit the atmosphere at all. It had to be a chameleon circuit, didn't it? The ship's exterior couldn't possibly really be a police box. Wait…how did she know about chameleon circuits? Even though the idea had just popped into her head she couldn't actually explain where it had come from. Damn it, why was she remembering so much stuff that she knew she shouldn't?

She looked at the Doctor suspiciously, wondering if he had anything to do with it, but he just grinned back at her. "Well, how about that, non-Lieutenant Dominie Nova? You've just turned me into a fugitive from the law."

She looked at him with a slightly irritated expression. "Well, I didn't ask you to do this."

"Would you have preferred it if I hadn't done?" he said, sounding a little surprised.

She suddenly realised just how ungrateful that must have sounded. "No, I mean...well, thanks, I guess. It's just that this is a little new to me. I don't remember ever having to go on the run from the law before."

"Good," he responded, "Means you've not been going round killing any more people. Or maybe it just means you've not been caught."

She glared at him defensively. "You were right the first time."

"Alright, I believe you," he said, noticing the way in which he was looking at him, and then he pulled down another lever on the console. "Anyway, we're here now."

Dominie's defensive expression suddenly turned to one of complete bewilderment. "What do you mean 'we're here'? We haven't been going five minutes. I'm not convinced we even set off."

"No, seriously," he said, nodding at the door, "Your house is just out there."

"Is this a joke?"

"No," he said again, "Outside that door is the planet Ezucan, otherwise known as Alcyone Three Beta, the second planet in the third orbital around Alcyone of the Pleiades Star Cluster, and we're on the Tropic of Sycaro at the house next to…"

"Alright, I know where I live," she said dismissively as she crossed to the door. Once she opened it she stared outside for a couple of seconds before turning to look back at him with a raised eyebrow.

He grinned back, "Told you," he said, "Now will you admit the Tardis is pretty impressive?"

"Tardis? Is that what you call it?" she said, glancing round the control room, "Well, it's not bad."

He looked rather disappointed with that answer. "Not bad? You're hard to please, aren't you?"

She shrugged. "I guess. Anyway, thanks for the lift," she said cheerily, striding out of the door and up to the front entrance of the villa the Tardis was parked in front of.

"Wait!" he called out, running after her as she strode off. "So, now are you going to tell me what exactly happened between you and that man back on Acaritos?"

"Oh yeah, about that…" she said, walking up the steps to the Terrean-Greek style porch and scanning the key to open the door. She walked inside and he was about to follow her when suddenly a steel barrier descended in the doorway, and he looked along the length of the villa to see the defensive shutters come up on all the windows as well. He sighed, taking out his sonic screwdriver. She really was determined not to cooperate.

He waved the sonic screwdriver in front of the key point and then the steel barrier slid up again, allowing him to go through. He walked into the entrance hall and saw her about to walk through a door at the far end, but then he called out again. "We had a deal."

She suddenly turned to look at him in shock. "Those are reinforced tsunami defence shutters, how the hell…?"

"Well, the sonic screwdriver's speciality is opening doors," he said as he tucked it back in his pocket. "Anyway, I've upheld my end of the agreement, now you uphold yours."

She glared at him. "You know you're technically trespassing now?"

"Ah yes," he said sarcastically, "The woman who just ran from the police is going to have me arrested for trespassing. That's convincing."

She glared at him for a few more moments and then sighed. "Oh, alright then, if you're so determined. Why don't you come in and have a seat? It might take a while to explain it all properly."

"Er…alright," he said, slightly put out by this sudden change in her attitude. Had she just thought of another, more dangerous, way to get rid of him?

"Living room's through here," she said, leading him through to a large open-plan room with a wooden floor and two cream leather sofas surrounding a glass coffee table. The wall opposite the door he'd come in through was made up almost entirely of glass, giving him a view out onto the patio and a series of steps leading down to the beach in the distance. Both the architecture and the décor seemed to be in the classic Terrean style, and he was beginning to think she wasn't a native to the Alcyone colony. The entire villa looked like it had been transported here from 22nd century Earth, and he wondered if maybe she'd once had a classic-style house on that planet that she was trying to recreate here. She was quite clearly human, and he suspected she might originally be from somewhere on Earth itself rather than one of the colonies.

"Ok, why don't you wait here and I'll get you a drink or something? What would you like, tea?" she asked as she led him over to the sofas in the middle of the large floor space.

"Oh, you've got to be English," he said as he took a seat, "Tea is just such an English thing to offer. I'd guess that from the accent too, although I think there's just a hint of Rigellian Dutch in there as well, but I'm going with English."

She looked at him with a mildly amused expression, "I've been told I sound Dutch when I speak Pleiadean Spanish as well," she said, "But anyway, you've not answered the question. Would you like tea or not?"

He was starting to wonder whether she intended to poison it. Where had this sudden willingness to cooperate come from? "Nah, I'm alright, thanks. I'm not thirsty."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? You're sat next to one of the best sugarleaf plantations in the galaxy and you're not going to try any leaf tea?"

She was determined to get him to drink, wasn't she? Well, he supposed he _could _agree to it. "Oh, alright then."

"Good," she said, suddenly putting on a smile and heading into the kitchen that was joined onto the living room via an open plan dining area. He could see into the dining space but there was a wall that blocked his view of the kitchen.

"So, who exactly was he then?" he called out to her as she disappeared behind the wall.

"He's one of the men who've been stealing sugarleaf from me for two months," Dominie replied, taking off the outdoor coat she was still wearing and throwing it on the back of a chair before going to fetch two mugs from the cupboard. She wasn't too sure why she'd suddenly decided to stop trying to get rid of him, but she actually thought she could trust him enough to tell him at least part of the truth. Maybe it had been the way he'd run from the police with her, or the ridiculously speedy ride here, or the casual ease with which he'd got past the tsunami shutters, but she could definitely tell there was something unusual about him, and she sensed it was unusual in a good way. Part of her was still reluctant to talk openly to him, scared that she'd end up finding out more than she wanted to, but he genuinely didn't seem to know anything about her. She hoped that meant she had nothing to fear from him.

"And you just decided to kill him because he was stealing from you?" she heard him call out again. His tone wasn't exactly accusatory, but she still felt defensive.

"No!" she shouted back indignantly, "I confronted him about it first and he didn't react well, _that _was when I killed him. He tried to poison me first, remember?"

"Yes, I remember," she heard him reply. "But you know there's a legal system for dealing with thieves?"

She didn't answer immediately, instead crossing over to one of the cupboards to take out some teabags. She paused for a moment as she opened the door and read the note taped to the back of it. It was there, just as always, with three words scrawled in her messy handwriting: take the pills. _Ah yes, the pills, _she thought. She had one bottle in the pocket of her coat which was slung over the chair, and there was another in the cupboard in amongst the tea. Always one close to hand, and always a reminder of what she had to do. Even though she knew she'd already had her regular dosage today, given some of the things she'd been thinking about she didn't think it would hurt to take a couple more.

She took out the bottle from the cupboard and just as she swallowed two of the pills from it she heard the Doctor call out again. "Dominie?"

"What?" she replied quickly as she replaced the bottle, having forgotten what the question was. "Oh, yes, I know. But I don't really like the courts."

She took out a couple of sugarleaf-infused teabags and placed them in the top of the drinks machine before setting one of the mugs underneath the nozzle the liquid was dispensed from. She flicked the on switch and the buzz of the instant boil mechanism almost drowned out what he said next.

"The courts are there to stop things like this happening. If you'd gone to them I'm pretty sure nobody would be dead by now."

The machine finished filling the first mug and she replaced it with the second. "Try telling that to my chief cargo pilot who disappeared when they first started hijacking shipments two months ago."

"Why didn't you go to the police then?"

"I did." She took the second mug out from under the machine and began to head back into the living room. As approached the coffee table with a mug of tea in each hand she looked up to see him frowning at her.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing, they never found out exactly what happened to him. No crime, no suspects," she replied.

"So you decided to take the law into your own hands?" It was just a question, not a judgement, and she was grateful for that. She thought that perhaps she'd been right on their first meeting when she decided she liked him.

"Something like that, yeah," she said, setting down the mugs on the table, "Anyway, here you go. Finest Pleiadean sugarleaf tea."

As she sat down in the sofa opposite him he looked at the drinks. "Thanks," he said, before reaching over to take the mug from her side of the table and taking a sip of it. She tried not to react to that, but she knew why he'd done it. In response she took the mug from his side of the table and took a large gulp of the liquid, having no trouble ignoring the burning sensation it brought to her mouth and throat.

He looked at her with an expression of mild surprise, and she smirked at him. "See, I didn't poison it."

"No, alright, I'll believe that," he said, taking another sip of the tea, and then paused to look down at the mug for a moment. "So what _did _you do, then?"

"I didn't _do _anything," she replied, sounding perfectly innocent and with good reason. She _hadn't _done anything.

"Maybe not to the tea, no," he said, leaning forward to look at her, and once again she saw a burning intensity in those brown eyes that unnerved her slightly. "But I saw you do _something._"

"What do you mean?" she asked, trying to sound relaxed but her worry showed through. With just that one sentence he'd managed to throw out her sense of calm completely. Had she been wrong about him? Did he know something about her after all?

"When you were standing next to the cupboard it looked like you took something," he continued, "What was it?"

She stared at him in shock for a couple of seconds. "How did…?" She glanced over in the direction of the kitchen, but as her gaze passed over the dining area she noticed the mirror she had hanging on the wall above the dining table. From where she was sat she could see it reflecting the sea through the full length windows, but she was fairly certain that from the opposite sofa it would reflect the kitchen, allowing him to see the cupboard she'd been stood beside.

He must have seen everything. There was no point trying to hide what happened. "I'm on medication," she replied, giving away as little detail as possible.

"What for?" he asked in a curious tone.

She shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to meet his gaze. Nobody was supposed to know about this. This was the exact reason she only ever employed autons on the plantation, never had any friends round, never formed any kind of significant relationship with anybody if she could help it: the less people she was around, the less people there would be to ask questions. She knew she couldn't give him a full answer. "Memory problems."

"Really? Which medication is it?" he asked, still looking at her with that intense gaze. "Iridium lithide? Pherinozac? Novopranazol? Calcium carbohalogens?"

"No, none of those," she said, just to stop him listing them but impressed by how many he seemed to know. "I'm not on meds to _counteract _memory loss."

He noticed the way she'd stressed the word 'counteract' and he looked at her thoughtfully, his curiosity apparent. "So, you're on meds to make you _forget_?"

She looked at him in silence for a few moments. How had he managed to go from complete stranger to getting to know this much about her in just a few short hours? But still, for some inexplicable reason she felt she was able to trust him. "Yes. I can't remember anything prior to seven years ago, when I officially died."

He looked confused for a moment. "But how…what could possibly be so terrible or dangerous that you want to erase it from your memory?"

"Well, I don't remember do I?"

"No, but…" he seemed to be trying to work something out, "How do you manage to go on living your life knowing there's something about your past you can't remember? Don't you want to know what happened?"

"No," she said in a tone of absolutely certainty.

He still didn't look convinced, and leaned forward in his seat to look at her more closely as he continued to think. "But you're _choosing _to take the pills," he said slowly, and she watched him with a growing sense of apprehension as she wondered what he was thinking. "There are ways to permanently erase someone's memory...ways to make them not realise they'd ever forgotten anything it the first place," he continued, "But you _know _that you're forgetting something. You chose to take amnesia pills instead of having your memory erased completely. So if that's the case then maybe whatever it is you're forgetting can't have been _that _bad?"

Dominie raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Oh really?" she said, suddenly putting down the mug of tea and leaning closer to him with a serious expression. "Can't be _that _bad, can it?" She held out her left forearm and he looked down at it in puzzlement for a moment, then she rolled backed the sleeve of her shirt to show him what was underneath. He didn't visibly react, but she thought she'd made her point.

He gazed at the white lines of scar tissue on the inside of her arm for a few moments, before looking up again to silently meet her gaze. They weren't just random cuts. They were marks made with intention and precision to form three words: the same three words she had written on so many surfaces throughout the house, the same three words she repeated to herself every morning as soon as she woke up, the three words that formed the basis of her life: take the pills.

She pulled her sleeve back down suddenly without breaking his gaze. "I don't remember doing that to myself, but trust me, it's not something I would _ever _do if I was in my normal mental state. I don't remember what happened – maybe I forgot to take the pills or maybe I didn't take them on purpose, I don't know – but whatever happened then was enough to drive me to do _that. _If I took those kind of measures to make sure I keep taking the pills then I really don't want to find out the reason I chose to go on them in the first place. If that means not knowing anything about my life prior to seven years ago, then I think I can live with that."

He continued to look at her with that intense gaze, but there wasn't any kind of pity or horror in his expression; none of the emotions she'd expected or feared_. _He seemed to be quite calm, not saying anything for a few seconds, but when he did speak all he said to her was, "Are you sure?"

"Perfectly." Her tone was final.

"No," he said calmly as he sat up straighter in his seat, "What I meant was how can you be sure you _chose _to go on them? You said yourself you can't remember. It's possible I was wrong about it being _your _choice to start taking the pills. How do you know it wasn't somebody else who forced you to go on them? What if you're on them for somebody else's benefit rather than yours?"

She shook her head. "I don't care. Even if that was the case, if I don't take them then quite clearly bad things happen. If I _do _take them then my life is fine, and I don't want to change that."

"_Is _it fine, though?" he said thoughtfully, "Really? Everything but seven years of your life missing and you're okay with that?"

Dominie couldn't believe how much she'd already told him, but she couldn't stop herself from answering. It was almost like she was trusting him despite herself, and she was wondering if it was something to do with the effects of the pills. "Well, maybe not exactly, but I think I've got less to gain from not taking the pills than I have to lose."

"So you're taking them because you're scared?" Again, it wasn't a judgement, just a question.

She nodded. Even if it made her a coward, it was the truth. "Yes."

He leaned back in his seat and exhaled slowly, looking as if he was working something out. "Dominie," he said after a few moments, still looking at her.

She stared right back, unable to look away from the intensity of those brown eyes. "Yes?"

"What if I told you there was a way to find out what had happened without you having to be scared?"

She shook her head and blinked rapidly to try and break the hold he seemed to have over her. "You can't. There's no way."

"Yes there is," he said, leaning in closer to her, and she found she was unable to prevent herself from looking back into his eyes. "Dominie, I could find out everything that's happened to you. If there's somebody who made you start taking the pills I could find out who it was and why. I could find out the reason your ID card says terminated. Everything you don't know about, I could find out the truth. Collect all the evidence and piece it together without you actually having to remember any of it. Whatever it is, if it does turn out to be something completely terrible then I can still give you the choice to forget about it. How would you feel about that?"

Her eyes flickered downwards for a moment but she found she was unable to break his gaze for long. She'd wanted to stay firm in her convictions and give him a solid answer - it wasn't any of his business and she didn't want to know any more - but she found she was nowhere near that certain. "I…I don't know."

"Dominie, this is most of your life we're talking about," he said, keeping his intense brown gaze fixed upon her. "It's a terrible thing to be frightened of your own past, believe me I know. But it's even worse to not know _what _it is you're scared of. Seven years is long enough to have been living in the dark. Don't you think it's about time you found out what happened?"

As she looked into his eyes in that moment she was taken aback by just how _old _he seemed. There seemed to be so much history there...so much emotion and knowledge and pain that she was almost scared to look. But somehow she found herself agreeing with him. "Yes, maybe it is."

He nodded. "Alright, I'll make you a deal. You come with me and we'll find out exactly what happened to you together. I won't force you to stop taking the pills if you really don't want to, but we'll find a way to work out why you're taking them in the first place. And then maybe...maybe once you know what happened you'll choose to remember it all, but I promise it'll be your choice. I won't force you to do anything, but I will help you find out the truth. How does that sound?"

That sounded…she wasn't sure. She couldn't understand why he was doing this. "Doctor, why…why would you offer to do that?"

He smiled at her. "Well, it's a mystery isn't it? And I love solving mysteries, finding out new things and that kind of stuff. But more importantly, I never ignore someone in need of help, and from what I've seen so far you really do look like you need it."

She looked at him, still a little uncertain. He was right, if she was to ever find out the truth about what had happened to her she was going to need help. But she still wasn't all that sure if that _was _what she wanted. Not to mention his proposal still didn't make much sense to her. "But…how would you do it?"

His smile broadened even further. "Put it this way, I'm a 900 year old Time Lord and I can use my Tardis to go anywhere in space and time. There's not one scrap of information I won't be able to uncover about you, if that's what you want. If you're going to find out what happened then the best way to do it would be with me."

If he'd said that to her an hour ago she would have thought he was mad, but for some reason now she believed him. He seemed to genuinely want to help her. She was trying to be suspicious of him, trying to consider that maybe he was trying to mislead her, or maybe he was someone from her past come to get back at her for something she didn't remember, but her gut feeling was that she should trust him. What he was offering…yes, she wanted that. She was terrified of stopping taking the pills, terrified of uncovering something so horrific it would scar her forever, but if he was there then maybe it wouldn't be so bad. "So you're saying that if I come with you then bad things won't happen?"

"Well, I can't guarantee they won't happen at all, but if they do then at least you won't be facing them alone. I won't let you hurt yourself like that again." He watched her reaction, and even though she still seemed uncertain she seemed to be coming round to his proposal. "So do we have a deal?" he asked.

Dominie chewed her lip nervously as she tried to decide. She didn't need to do this. Her life was fine as it was, and she'd thought she'd be happy just to carry on like this. Even if she didn't know her real name or where she was from she'd thought she didn't mind that, but this conversation with him had prompted her to think more. No matter how frightening the alternative, did she really want to die not knowing who she was?

She looked up at him and took a breath, about to reply, but suddenly the thought of that was wiped from her mind as she saw the flash of light outside the full length windows behind him. She knew that flash. She didn't know _how _she knew that flash, but something was telling her it was bad.

"Duck!" she yelled, grabbing his arm to pull him to the floor a second before the glass of the windows shattered and burst of hot plasma collided with the sofa Dominie had just been sat on.

They both exchanged glances across the floor where they lay either side of the coffee table. Dominie had made her decision. Or rather, whoever was attacking them had made her decision for her. "Deal," she said as they both picked themselves up, keeping themselves low as another burst of plasma went overhead. "Now run!"


	6. On The Run

**I've not updated this for a while as I'm starting to find it a bit too heavy, to be honest. I know I'm one for complex storylines, but this one's going to probably end up being one of the most confusing I've ever done, purely because of the amount of detail I'm going to have to put into it. This is actually intended as a sequel to a piece of original fiction I started to post on FictionPress, but I only wrote two chapters of it before deciding I actually wanted to write this as a fanfiction. I had a whole story planned about Dominie prior to the events in this, but then I decided I wanted to write the story of Dominie forgetting about it and then unearthing the past with the Doctor. Which means I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do if I want anyone to understand this, so this is going to be a lot of work.**

**I do still enjoy writing this and want to go as far with it as possible, but it's just a bit much to handle updating it frequently. I'm getting so wrapped up in the plot that I'm still finding the characterisation immensely difficult, but I'm really making the effort to write the Tenth Doctor at least passably. Honestly, in every Doctor Who fic I've ever done I've always found him the most difficult to get in character because he's so complex, but I'm going to keep trying.**

**Anyway, thanks to Chessie for the review and on we go!**

_**Chapter Six – On The Run**_

The pair of them ran towards the door to the room, ducking more plasma shots as they went. Once they'd reached the exit the Doctor saw Dominie reach up to hit a control pad attached the wall next to the doorframe. "No, don't do that!" he shouted, but it was too late.

There was a whirring mechanical sound as the shutters suddenly came up again and the room was plunged into darkness. The plasma fire ceased and the pair of them stood still in the doorway, waiting to see what happened. After a few seconds the backup lights flickered on, and in the dim light the Doctor saw Dominie glaring at him. "Why not?" she snapped, "Those shutters are more than capable of deflecting plasma bursts."

"Well, it won't do much good if…" he began to respond, but then suddenly another bright burst of plasma collided with the door frame just over their heads. "If the shooter's already inside the building!" the Doctor finished as they began to run deeper inside the villa again.

They ran across the entrance hall and towards a flight of stairs. Dominie started to ascend them, but the Doctor grabbed her arm and tried to pull her in the opposite direction. "Don't get stranded on the upper floor, we need to get out of here and back to the Tardis."

She pulled away from him and continued running upstairs. "You do that if you like. I want to find out who the fuck's trashing my house."

The Doctor felt a surge of frustration that she was being so stubborn again, but continued to follow her upstairs just as another plasma jet collided with the banister. They reached the landing and Dominie ran towards and door just a few metres to their left, opening it to go through with the Doctor close behind her. On the other side was a large room with a spacious circular bed in the middle of the floor, beside which was a white swivel chair with a khaki jacket flung over the back of it. There was a tall wardrobe with mirrored doors on the wall opposite the shuttered window, and next to the door they'd entered by was an ornate chest of drawers. The room might have looked stylish if it weren't for the clutter that was covering every available surface: paper documents, electronics, ornaments…all sorts of things scattered around the room in a disorganised mess. This must be Dominie's bedroom, the Doctor realised, and he was a little surprised by how untidy it was. He'd had her down as the kind of person who liked everything to be orderly and under control.

Dominie snatched up the khaki jacket and shrugged it on over the black long-sleeved shirt she was wearing, before crossing to the chest of drawers. She opened the top one and took out three small glass bottles which she put into the pockets of the jacket. _More pills, _the Doctor realised. Then she opened the second drawer and took out some kind of firearm which the Doctor recognised as an ion revolver. "Should've known," he commented, "You like shooting people, don't you?"

"If it stops them shooting me," Dominie said in response, loading the revolver with a magazine of cathode cases and cocking the charge hammer.

"Have you got any idea who it is?" the Doctor asked, but Dominie just shook her head as she crossed to the door.

"None whatsoever," she replied, and before he could do anything to stop her she'd opened the door again and fired two ion rays in the direction the plasma was coming from. Apparently, she missed, and another jet of heated plasma exploded on the landing. Dominie darted across the scorched floor to the other side of the landing and ducked down next to the banister before taking another shot. The Doctor was about to follow her when there was another explosion in front of him, and he hung back in the doorway. He reached into his jacket for his sonic screwdriver and glanced at across at Dominie opposite him. Her eyes flickered from the direction of the shooter towards him.

"Stop shooting," he instructed her, "I can immobilise the plasma cannon with this."

She glanced sceptically at the device in his hands, but he ignored her and brought it up to point in the general direction the shots were coming from. He activated the screwdriver and the blue light on the end of it began flashing as the sonic pulse was sent in the direction of the staircase. A couple of seconds passed without any more plasma shots firing, and the Doctor and Dominie exchanged glances. Even if that had worked, then the shooter was still out there somewhere and they both had to be cautious. The Doctor slowly inched his head out of the door to look round the corner, but the backup lights weren't up to much and he couldn't see anything beyond the top of the staircase. He wasn't even sure he'd been pointing the screwdriver in the right direction, but there had been quite a pause since the last shots were fired. Hopefully that meant it was safe.

He glanced over at Dominie again and was about to cross the landing to join her, but then a plasma burst collided with the doorframe just next to his head and he ducked down with a surprised yell.

"And while you're doing that, I'll _actually _be taking care of the problem," Dominie remarked snarkily as she got up and ran towards the top of the stairs, firing ion bursts into the shadows in front of her.

"Dominie, stop shooting and give me chance to do something!" the Doctor shouted, picking himself up again and running after her. He saw that she'd just reached the top of the stairs when a jet of plasma collided with her arm, causing her to drop the gun. She gave a scream as the force of the impact knocked her off her feet, and she fell sideways and began to tumble down the stairs. "Dominie!" the Doctor shouted again. He ran after her, all the time looking round to try and work out where the shots must be coming from. He still couldn't see the shooter through the shadows and it seemed like the shots must be coming from somewhere above them. But where exactly? He didn't know the layout of this house well, but he couldn't see anywhere higher up on this floor where the shooter could be.

As he ran down the stairs to where Dominie had landed roughly at the bottom another plasma burst took out the steps underneath his feet. He lost his footing and slid down the next few steps, but managed to put an arm out to stop himself from falling any further. He held up the sonic screwdriver to point towards the top of the stairs and activated it, not stopping to give any thought as to whether or not that had worked before picking himself up and running down towards the ground floor.

Dominie had picked herself up and as he reached her she turned to look at him. Upon seeing he was only carrying the sonic screwdriver she shot him a glare. "What did you leave my gun at the top of the stairs for?"

"Oh, the sonic's so much better than a gun," he responded, "I think I've managed to deactivate the…" The end of that sentence turned into a cry of pain as he felt a something hot collide with his right shoulder blade. It wasn't the burn of sizzling plasma, but more like a sharp stab of heat concentrated on a small point. "Oh, he's got a laser pistol as well," the Doctor hissed through gritted teeth, "I don't think there's any point trying to fight him. Let's just get out of here."

"Well since I've not got a gun anymore what choice do we have?" Dominie snapped as they ran towards the front entrance. The Doctor brought up the screwdriver to deactivate the shutters, and they just managed to make it through the exit before several laser shots collided with the doorframe.

"Come on!" the Doctor yelled as they headed back to where the Tardis was parked. He was the first through the doors of the police box, but Dominie was very soon after and as she shut the door behind them she felt it rattle as a laser jet hit the other side.

The Doctor had crossed to the console and was fiddling with the controls to get the Tardis to move. Like it had done earlier, the engine seemed to give a groan of protest and the ship didn't appear to want to do anything. From outside came the sound of more laser shots colliding with the door. "Doctor, get a chuffing move on," Dominie hissed.

"I'm trying," he snapped back, "I don't understand what's the problem. Come on, I'm only asking you to take us into orbit." He addressed the last part to the Tardis, and once he'd said that the groaning noise stopped and was replaced by the more familiar whooshing sound. "Ah, much better," the Doctor said as the sound of lasers hitting the door suddenly ceased.

He let out a steady breath as the stabbing pain in his shoulder slowly faded. It was a clean laser wound and as a Time Lord it would only take him a few minutes to heal.

He turned to Dominie and saw that she was scowling. "Are you alright?" he asked sincerely.

She glared at him. "If you mean aside from being attacked by a lunatic with a plasma gun who kept trying to blow my home to pieces, and then being dragged off to God-knows-where by another lunatic in a blue box, yes I am fine."

He didn't say anything in response to that, thinking that this time her reaction to the situation was completely justified. He could imagine that being dragged away from her home like this was a massive shock to her, but she _had _agreed to go with him. And after what had just happened he didn't think it was really an option for her to change her mind.

Dominie just continued to stand by the door and glare at him, and he walked away from the console to go nearer to her. He could see the burn on her upper arm from the plasma burst and it looked nasty. "Let me have a look at that," he said, reaching out to her, but she pulled away from him.

"Don't bother, it's fine."

There she was, being stubborn again. "Dominie, I really think you should let me take a look."

"I said it's _fine,_" she repeated insistently. "Now can you please tell me where we're going?"

"Dominie, just let me," he said firmly, and she glared at him for a few more seconds before giving a roll of her eyes and shrugging off the jacket with its scorched sleeve.

He reached out to touch her arm just at the edge of the burnt skin, trying to get a better look. It wasn't actually as bad as it had first seemed. Only the outer layer of skin appeared to have been damaged and the area of the burn wasn't all that large. He frowned slightly, finding it a little odd.

Dominie, noticing his expression, raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on, what are you looking like that for? It's not that bad."

"Exactly," he said thoughtfully, looking up at her face. "I don't think he was trying to kill us."

Dominie gave him a disbelieving look. "Really? Because with all that shooting he was doing he could have fooled me."

The Doctor shook his head. "But he kept missing, didn't he? All those shots and only a couple were on target, and even then he didn't hit anything vital. If he'd had the plasma cannon on its highest setting he could have taken your entire arm off, but he's only just scorched the top layer of skin. It seems more like he was just trying to scare us."

Dominie frowned. "But why? That makes no sense whatsoever."

"No, it doesn't" the Doctor agreed, still probing gently around the wound with his fingers, "Are you sure you have no idea who he was?"

"Haven't a clue," she replied, "He might be working for one of my rivals; might be something to do with the Costello brothers; or he could be something else entirely. I honestly don't know."

The Doctor made a 'hmm' noise as he continued to think, still looking at the burn on Dominie's arm. She didn't seem to be reacting to that at all either, and that was another thing that puzzled him. He gently pressed his fingers against the edge of the burn and looked up at her face. Her expression was blank. "You will tell me if I'm hurting you, won't you?" he asked, a little concerned.

"You're not," she replied with a smirk.

He found her reaction a little odd and frowned slightly. "No?"

"I have congenital analgesia, didn't I mention that?" she said nonchalantly.

"Really?" Now that was something else intriguing about her. The more he found out about her the more questions it seemed to raise, and now he was more eager than ever to find out exactly who she was. "So you can't feel pain? At all?"

She shrugged. "I can feel temperature, texture and pressure, but it doesn't really register as being bad. I know there's a sensation but it doesn't really hurt, if that makes sense."

He studied her face with a fascinated expression. "Do you know why? Is it a side effect of the pills?"

"Might be," she replied, "I can't remember a time when it was any different. I don't know if the cuts on my arm hurt when I did them, or if I only did them because I knew it was the only way to write a permanent reminder for myself, but I don't think it matters all that much."

"Don't think it matters?" he repeated incredulously, "Of course it matters. The reason pain exists is to let you know when something's wrong, and if you can't feel it then you're only in more danger of doing yourself serious damage. Surely you must worry about that."

She just shrugged again. "A little, but I've got used to it. I know how to deal with things."

He frowned again, concerned by how little she even seemed to care about it. "Don't you find it a bit odd, though?" he asked, finding it difficult to believe she was genuinely content not knowing the truth about her past, "That you not only chose to forget everything prior to the last seven years of your life, but you've got a rare condition that makes you indifferent to pain. It seems pretty likely to me that the analgesia is linked to the pills. Have you never wanted to find out for sure?"

Dominie shook her head. "I work on the assumption that either it's the pills that give me the analgesia, in which case it's a worthwile side effect if it stops me remembering; or it's not the pills, in which case I deliberately tried to make myself forget what it was. So either way, I don't particularly want to know," she answered, still not sounding like she cared all that much. "I know there's an evolutionary purpose to pain, but it's not just that; it works the other way too. I can't feel pleasure either. I do experience sensations, but my brain doesn't process them as being either good or bad. The only part of me I get anything positive or negative out of is my sense of taste, and I find that's enough to keep me happy. Other than that I'm completely indifferent."

"That's…that's really…" he trailed off, not quite able to find the right word for what it was. Part of him found it quite sad that she couldn't feel any kind of pleasure from physical touch, but at the same time not being able to feel pain wasn't really something to be pitied. Or was it? Pain was supposed to be what reminded a person they were alive, but Dominie couldn't feel it. She couldn't even remember who she was or where she came from, and there was something about that which was heartbreakingly sad. Despite finding her immensely frustrating to be around, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

Dominie gave a bitter laugh. "It is what it is, and I've managed to live with it for as long as I can remember. It doesn't bother me. Now, are you done?" she asked, pulling her arm away from him.

He looked at her with a concerned but resigned expression. It seemed she was determined not to let him help her. "Yes, I'm done," he answered. "Just get some bionitrine solution and a bandage on it and you'll be fine. The Tardis infirmary is down there," he said, pointing towards a corridor that led away from the control room.

"Alright," Dominie said bluntly, beginning to walk in that direction, but then she stopped and turned to look back at him. "So are you going to answer my question? Where _are _we going now, then?"

He was standing back at the console and altering the co-ordinates for the Tardis' destination. "Well, since you have an expired ID card from the Intergalactic Federal Authority, I thought that potentially makes them suspects in who sent the shooter after you _and_ they might have some information about you in their records. So, we could always start with their headquarters on Altager Four. How does that sound?"

Dominie just rolled her eyes as if she didn't particularly care. "Do what you like," she replied, "I still can't believe I agreed to this." That was all she said before turning away from him and continuing towards the medical bay.

The Doctor stared after her for a few seconds with an eyebrow raised. She really was fascinating. Ever since he'd met her she seemed to swing between being perfectly friendly with him and then flipping to phases of passive-aggressive snarking, and that odd behavioural pattern was just as intriguing as the past she didn't know about. He hoped he was going to be able to find some answers.

"Alright, Altager Four it is then," he muttered to himself just has she vanished round the corner, and he pulled down a lever to set the Tardis off on its course.


	7. Arrival

**A/N: Okay, I finally felt like continuing with this. Still struggling with it, but I quite like the challenge of it. I'm trying to make Dominie as much of an anti-companion as possible, which then makes it extra difficult to work out how the Doctor would plausibly react to her. I'm still treating this as an experimental fic, but it's good to get some of my ideas out in the open.**

**All reviews are appreciated, even (perhaps especially) if you want to flame me and tear this fic to pieces. Strong reactions are what I'm aiming for, particularly now that I feel I'm getting stuck into the main plot at bit more.**

_**Chapter Seven – Arrival**_

There was a periodic whooshing noise as the Tardis materialised on the artificial concrete ground of Altager Four. A moment later the door opened and the Doctor stepped out, followed by a rather hesitant Dominie Nova. She was scowling slightly and very much looked like she didn't want to be there, whereas the Doctor seemed quite at ease as he looked up at the towering metal and concrete buildings that surrounded them. "Here we are, IFA HQ on Altager Four. Big place, let's try not to get lost. So, where should we start?"

Dominie just continued to scowl at him. "How the fuck should I…" she was beginning to answer, but he seemed unfazed by her aggression and simply talked over her as he spotted the sign on a building in front of them.

"I suppose reception would be a good idea," he said as he began to walk towards the entrance labelled as such. Dominie shut up and cast an uncertain glance from him back to the Tardis, before sighing and firmly shutting the door behind her.

"Alright, I suppose we may as well," she muttered to herself as she set off after him. She was still uneasy about the whole situation and the inexplicable trust she'd felt towards him earlier was wearing off. Was he doing this because he genuinely wanted to help her, like he'd said, or was it for some other reason entirely? She couldn't work it out, but since the police were probably now after her and her home had just been blown to pieces by a lunatic with a plasma cannon, she knew she didn't have much choice but to go with him. There was still the worry that if he was doing this just to satisfy his own curiosity he might end up making everything worse, but so far he'd seemed nice enough and she was prepared to give him a chance. _Not that I really have any other option, _she thought rather bitterly as she followed him towards the reception.

Coming up behind him she noticed the small tear on the shoulder of his coat, and grimaced as she remembered he'd been hit by a laser blast from the shooter. She'd been so busy thinking about herself she hadn't even thought to ask if he was alright, and she knew that was unfair. Frustrating as he was, she had to admit that without him she'd probably have been arrested and be facing questioning by now. Perhaps she ought to at least make the effort to be nicer to him. "Sorry, I forgot to ask if you were alright. You know, after that psycho took a shot at you," she said as she caught up with him, sounding rather apologetic.

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow, as if surprised that she seemed to be showing genuine concern, but then shrugged. "Sure, I'm fine. Like I said, he had his weapons on a low setting for some reason. Didn't hurt all that much."

Dominie seemed perfectly satisfied with that answer and gave a nod, as if she didn't care enough to ask more. "Ok," she said simply as she continued to walk alongside him.

If he found her reaction odd he chose not to comment on it, and instead spoke about something else. "When we get back remind me to check the Tardis' engines, will you? They did that whiny thing again just as we set off."

Dominie looked mildly alarmed for a second but quickly hid it. "Your ship's not likely to crash, is it?" she asked, trying to make the question sound as casual as possible.

He shook his head. "Of course not, but I'd just like to check none of the parts have got stuck or anything, just to be sure."

Again, she just nodded and gave a very simple answer. "Alright."

As they approached the entrance the transparent glass door slid upwards to allow them into the reception. On the other side they found themselves standing in a large semicircular room with a plain white floor, plain white walls with no apparent doors and a plain white ceiling. In front of them was a white, seemingly unmanned reception desk that was curved slightly to fit the shape of the room. Dominie immediately began to walk towards it, but the Doctor reached out to grab her arm and pull her back. "Wait a moment, there's…" he began, and then noticed where he'd grabbed hold of her and muttered, "Sorry," as he quickly let go.

She frowned at him in confusion for a moment. "What for?" she asked, but then glanced down and realised he'd been gripping her where she'd been burned. "Oh…yeah, that's no problem," she said with a shrug, "But what…"

She broke off as she suddenly saw a blue light flashing in her face and blinked in surprise, but the Doctor didn't react at all as a computerised, disembodied voice suddenly sounded from somewhere, "Please remain still while our systems conduct a security scan."

The seemingly sourceless blue light flashed for a few more seconds before going out and the voice announced. "Security scan complete. No unsafe items detected."

Dominie glanced at the Doctor and then began to walk forward again, but he reached out to grab her wrist this time to hold her back. "Yeah, don't go just yet."

"Oh, what now?" she snapped in frustration, but then the room turned a shade of pale green as another light was switched on and the voice spoke out again.

"Thank you for your co-operation. You may proceed."

The Doctor let go of Dominie as he began to walk towards the desk, and she gave him a look as if to say "What the hell was that all about?"

"Always wait for it to tell you to," he explained as they reached the desk. "They can be a bit funny, Securautons. Make any move out of turn and they'll beam you straight to a holding cell until they can get a real sentient being to verify you're not a terrorist."

"I know what a Securauton is, Doctor," Dominie said defensively, "I just assumed that the IFA would have more up-to-date software, that's all. I can't believe they're still using the light-code version when the tempo-pattern one's pretty widely available."

He raised an eyebrow at her once she'd said that. "Really?"

She frowned at him, wondering why he seemed so puzzled. "Yeah, I know it's a pretty novel idea for the government to actually have up-to-date computer systems but the IFA's usually a little further ahead than all the other ministries."

He shook his head and looked thoughtful for a moment, "No, it's not that, it's just that I wouldn't have called tempo-pattern Securauton software widely available. Actually, I don't think it's going to enter the commercial market for another thirty or so years."

Now it was Dominie's turn to look confused. "What the hell are you talking about?" she said, but he didn't have chance to answer before the room suddenly turned purple and the voice addressed them again.

"Welcome to IFA Primary Facility Epsilon 503, Altager Four. Which department do you require?"

"Um…" Dominie began, and she and the Doctor exchanged glances.

"Official Records?" he suggested.

"I would have gone for Recent Commissions, if we want to find out who the shooter was."

He looked thoughtful for a second as he deliberated. "Do we want to find out who the shooter was or do we want to find out who _you_ are?"

Dominie thought that the only person here with a particular interest in finding out who _she _was was him, but she supposed she had agreed to this after all. "Well, both, preferably. I think," she replied, not sounding too sure of herself.

He nodded, seemingly oblivious to her uncertainty. "Right, well let's do it one at a time shall we?"

She nodded back in agreement, and then turned back towards the desk. Neither the voice nor the purple light had any apparent source, so she just looked vaguely in the direction of the back of the room as she spoke out in answer to the voice's question. The Doctor did so at the same time.

"Official Records."

"Recent Commissions."

The purple light suddenly went out and Dominie was faintly surprised to find the room had gone completely black. "Um, Doctor…" she began to say, but then a yellow light was switched on and she looked around to find herself standing in a completely different room altogether. In front of her were rows and rows of metal shelves stacked with v-files that seemed to stretch on forever, and glancing up she could see the ceiling which appeared to be hundreds of metres above her. The Doctor wasn't beside her anymore but she could see a few dozen people were walking among the shelves at ground level while many more were in hover pods floating among the towers all the way up to the ceiling. Dominie was only momentarily confused before the digital voice explained things to her. "Welcome to the Official Records Bureau, Estate 76ADN."

"Fuck, no _he _wanted the ORB, I wanted Recent Commissions," she muttered in irritation at the computer, but she was beginning to feel too self-conscious to raise her voice amongst all the other people here. She knew she only had visitor's clearance, which meant the only records she'd be able to get hold of would be in the declassified section. And they wouldn't be much use to her for anything. "Fuck," she murmured again, wondering if she should try asking the computer to beam her to the Recent Commissions Office where she suspected the Doctor would be, but then she thought that actually she wouldn't mind having chance to wander off on her own. If he was so interested in finding stuff out about her then she was quite happy to let him, but while she was here she thought she might take the opportunity to find out more stuff about _him._

With her sense of irritation beginning to fade, Dominie found her way to the foot of one of the shelves where a vacant hover pod was docked and waiting to be put to use. She climbed inside and waited for the red activation light to switch on before speaking out, "Declassifieds, subject match, search terms 'Doctor', 'Tardis', 'Time Lord'." There was just the faintest of hums as the pod elevated itself to a couple of metres off the ground and sped off to find the files that matched the search terms specified.

Dominie allowed herself a faint smile as she thought that perhaps her search for the Doctor's history might end up being more successful than his search for her own, but she wasn't paying much attention to anything else. She didn't notice the blond man standing at the foot of the shelves watching her zoom off, and didn't see the dark expression on his face as he raised a comms unit to his ear and spoke into it in a grim tone. "Belman, we've got a problem."


	8. The English Gentleman

**Thank you very much to LingeringLuminosity for the review. I'm very pleased you think that. Part of why I keep finding this fic so difficult to write is I think because it was never intended as a Doctor Who story. It was intended as a piece of original fiction that has somehow crossed over in the DW universe, but if you feel it fits in well here then it must be going alright :)**

_**Chapter Eight – The English Gentleman**_

When the lights came back on the Doctor immediately realised he wasn't standing in the Official Records Bureau, as he had hoped. Instead, he found himself standing in a small rectangular room that was for the most part painted the same shade of plain white as the reception, the only difference being that the wall in front of him was entirely mirrored to reflect the rest of the room. In it he could see himself standing on his own amid the expanse of plain white, and he couldn't help but think there was something about the situation that felt just slightly creepy. He quickly pushed that thought to one side as he tried to focus on the reason he was here. Briefly he thought that perhaps he should try and get back to Dominie, but then reminded himself that she was indigenous to this time zone and she was probably quite capable of finding her way around for herself. Since he'd ended up in the RCO he may as well get on with trying to find things out.

He took a few steps forward towards his reflection, noting as he did so that there appeared to be no exits from the room and the white light that illuminated everything had no apparent source. As he came within about three metres of the mirror the Securauton computer systems kicked in again and the room turned blue. "Welcome to the Office for Recent Commissions," the disembodied voice greeted him.

"Hello," he replied to it, even though he didn't think Securautons actually counted as being a form of AI. It would probably only recognise specified voice commands but he may as well try. "I don't suppose there are any actual people in this place, are there? You know, real people as opposed to just some computerised interface."

The voice just ignored him and continued with its automated message. "This department is reserved access only. Please provide identification now, or select the green option for assistance."

"Well, it was worth a try," he muttered to himself as he tried to decide what to do. He considered trying to use the psychic paper, but he didn't think it would work on a computer. "Assistance would be good," he said aloud, looking round the room for what might be the green option. "How do I select the green option? There's nothing to select the green option from," he said as he realised the walls were completely blank in all directions. "Do I just say 'green, please' or something?"

At that point the room suddenly turned a shade of pale green and the voice announced, "You have requested assistance. Please wait here and your request will be dealt with shortly."

"Well, I can't exactly go anywhere," the Doctor remarked as he once again glanced round to check there were indeed no doors. As user interfaces went, he found he had to agree with Dominie that this light-code one was rather frustrating.

After a few seconds the green light changed to white again and the Doctor heard a new voice speak, this one most definitely not a computer. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Um, yes… please," he said, turning round to try and see where the voice was coming from. "I'm, er…I'm looking for…sorry, where exactly are you?" he said as he suddenly stopped turning and looked straight ahead at the mirror again, realising he couldn't see anybody.

"I'm right in front of you sir," the feminine voice replied.

"Are you?"

"Yes."

He squinted his eyes as he looked in front of him, wondering if he was missing something, but all he could see was his own reflection. "Where?"

"I'm…oh wait, sorry," the voice said as she seemed to realise something, "Forgot to dim the photon splitter. One moment."

As he watched, his reflection in the mirror began to fade and was replaced with the image of a humanoid woman with blue skin and an elongated head. She was wearing the navy blue uniform of the IFA and had a rather apologetic expression on her face. "Sorry," she repeated, "We don't often get people visiting in person, it's easy to forget the room's on a time stream cross-fade. Anyway, what can I help you with?"

"Ah yes," he said, quickly trying to think of something to tell her, "I'm the Doctor and I'm looking to get hold of some files pertaining to a recent case of…shall we say armed assault on Alcyone Three Beta."

The woman raised an eyebrow at him. "You know all files in this section are classified, right? I'll need identification from you and you'll have to tell me what you want the files for."

"Of course," he said, taking out the psychic paper and showing it her. "I'm a lawyer and I need to analyse certain pieces of evidence for the case in question." It was quite a good lie, he thought, and he was rather pleased with himself for thinking of it.

She eyed him suspiciously. "A lawyer? I thought you said you were a doctor?"

"I'm _the _Doctor. Definite article. There's a difference."

"Right…" she said, sounding like she didn't fully understand, and then looked down at the psychic paper in his hand. "The Doctor, senior partner of Auriga ILA."

He nodded. "That's me."

"Okay," she responded, still looking a little confused, "Well, do you have a case number? And I'll need to know who the investigation was commissioned to."

"Well, as far as I'm aware the investigation hasn't been commissioned to anyone yet, even allowing for the relativistic time delay," he answered her, only causing her look of confusion to deepen even further. "But I'm more interested in finding out whether the actual crime itself was commissioned. Of course I could be completely wrong about this, but I won't know until I've checked."

She gave a bewildered shake of her head. "I'm sorry, what?"

He continued talking as if he hadn't noticed how much he'd perplexed her. The more confused he was the more likely she would be to let him see the files. "Would you be able to look up all files relating to the Nova sugarleaf plantation on Alcyone Three Beta for the last…say, twenty warpdays?"

"I…um…sorry, I don't think I can do that," she replied, "I'm not sure you have clearance. There needs to be a specific case number for you to get permission to access the files."

"Well, it says I'm a senior partner for a law firm," he said, drawing her attention to the psychic paper, "So let's assume my firm covers all recent case numbers for that part of Ezucan and I need to see all of them."

He thought he was managing to be quite convincing, but she was giving him a suspicious glare and he realised she wasn't likely to give in easily. "What do you need this for again?" she asked with a trace of hostility creeping into her tone.

"It's for a…" he began to answer, but they were interrupted by the sound of a man's voice coming from her side of the room.

"Did you say the Nova plantation?"

The question came quite abruptly and the Doctor tried looking past the woman to see who had asked it, but yet again found he couldn't see anyone.

"Um…yes, that's what I said," he replied, moving his head to see if any the photon splitter was being dimmed on the far side of the room. Slowly, he saw the figure of a man materialising behind the woman and making his way towards them.

"In which case, thank you, Alizya, but I will deal with this from here," the man said, addressing the woman in a crisp, aristocratic English accent.

Alizya turned to face him before glancing back at the Doctor, and then gave a curt nod before saying, "Yes, sir," and turning to walk back up the room, disappearing into the cross-faded region.

Curiously, the man in question wasn't wearing standard IFA uniform, but instead was dressed in a formal black suit, with a black shirt, black waistcoat, black tie and polished black shoes. The only splash of colour in his attire came from the gold chain that was dangling from the breast pocket of his waistcoat, and the Doctor assumed that he must keep an antique pocket watch of some sort attached to it. Indeed, the man's style of dress seemed very old fashioned but at the same time non-specific, and he wouldn't have looked out of place at just about any point in Earth's twenty-first or twenty-second century.

The man flashed the Doctor a smile, displaying perfectly straight white teeth. He looked to be in his early forties, although with cosmetic procedures so commonplace these days it was quite possible he was decades older. Either way he was certainly handsome - even the Doctor could appreciate that fact - with an angular jaw, long straight nose and very dark grey eyes. He was also very well groomed, with his black hair pristinely oiled and smoothed over his scalp and his moustache neatly trimmed into a traditional Italian style.

It occurred to the Doctor that this man appeared to be trying to cut the image of what was once considered on Earth to be the perfect gentleman – polite, charming and classy – and he certainly managed to pull it off very well. But yet there was still something about him that set the Doctor on edge. Despite the apparently warm smile he was being given, there was still something in those hard grey eyes that made the Time Lord feel uneasy.

It was with a definite sense of caution that the Doctor reached out to accept the handshake that was being offered to him, and the man continued to grin as he addressed him in that almost-too-perfect English accent. "Elias Belman, sir. Pleasure to meet you."


End file.
